CBI names its No. 2 man Asthana as accused No. 1 in bribery case

New Delh, Oct 21: In a major development the Central Bureau of Investigation has named its special director, Rakesh Asthana as an accused in a bribery scandal.

The CBI named its number 2 man as the first accused for allegedly demanding and taking bribe from a businessman who was under investigation in the Moin Qureshi corruption case by a special investigation team headed by Asthana.

It may be recalled that the CBI had informed the Central Vigilance Commission that it was probing Asthana in six cases of corruption.

The CBI moved against Asthana following the arrest of a Dubai based middleman Manoj Prasad. Moin Qureshi was raided by the Income Tax department in 2014 and his messages with former CBI director A P Singh had led to Singh's resignation as member of the Union Public Services Commission. In 2017, the CBI registered a case and this was one of the many major cases being handled by Asthana.

A complainant in the case, Sana Satish had on October 4 named Asthana before the Magistrate. He also claimed that he was being harassed by CBI officers to pay more. It was also detained how Rs 3 crore had been paid over a period of 10 months from December 2017 onwards.